Jesus: The God-Man

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We are going to take a look at one of the most complicated and comforting mysteries in the Bible. How is Jesus in one Person able to have a fully divine nature and a fully human nature? There is one sense in which that mystery is simply left at that: a mystery. As one theologian put it: “We are simply told what Jesus is, without any attempt to show how He became what He is…It has always recognized the incarnation as a mystery which defies explanation. And so it will remain, because it is the miracle of miracles” (Berkhof, 321).
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But just because we can’t explain how this mystery works, doesn’t mean we can’t be awed by viewing it. I can’t possibly explain how a star manages for most of its life not to be crushed by its own gravity or how a hunk of rock and gases emit light, but I can still be captured by its beauty in the night sky.
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Now, unlike a star, Jesus is more than someone to admire and ultimately worship and obey. He’s not less than that, but the angle that I want to take a look at today is the comforting aspect of knowing who our God is.
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The last couple of weeks, we have been examining the Person of Jesus. The first week of Advent, we look at Jesus’ divinity, as clearly seen in John 1:1-14. Next, we saw the humanity of Jesus out of Luke 2:52. Now, we are going to look at those two elements together and see what it means for Jesus to be the Godman. Again, how this works is a mystery beyond human mental capability, but what this means for us is well within our grasp to understand and worship.
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We will consider this chapter under a couple of broad headings. The first is Jesus is the King of all Kings. Second, Jesus is the reconciler of all things, and Third, Therefore, Jesus is your sole Hope
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Jesus is the King of all Kings
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This letter was written to the church because the church at Colosse was beset by a culture that was very afraid of spiritual powers. The people in the area were concerned that angels, demons, other gods might have an impact on things like their crops, so keeping them happy was very important. It is difficult for us to imagine the level of concern that this would bring because for most of us, having food is a given. The thought that all your crops might die because you didn’t offer a little sacrifice to the gods would be very powerful.
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Here, Paul is reminding everyone who is really in charge. Speaking of Christ, Paul says that He is the revealer of God, which is just another way of saying that He is God Himself. To look at the face of Christ is to look at the face of God. He is called the firstborn of all creation not because He was created Himself, but because “he existed before creation.” (McLaurin, Lexham Theological Wordbook). This is made explicit in the next verse (16) by saying that all things, including any and all authority figures on Earth or in the spiritual realm were created through Him and for Him. This means that not only was everything created by Christ, but everything was created to serve Christ as well!
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However, I want us to look at verse 17 closely. Not only did He create all things, but He is the one who holds all things together. All things, rulers spiritual and earthly included, not only started to exist because of Jesus, but they also continue to exist because of Jesus! The word translated “hold together” or “endure” is in the perfect tense, meaning this is something that happened in the past that has enduring effect to the present. In other words He has held things all together and continues to do so. So if Jesus ever wanted to remove someone from power, all He has to do is relax. He just has to stop sustaining that person’s life and they immediately stop. He doesn’t have to figure out how to stop this person, come up with a plan to defeat them, He just has to stop holding them together.
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This comprehensive control should bring us a lot of comfort and direct us on how to deal with problems in our world. Nothing that a ruler of any sphere does is outside the realm of God’s control, so this means that we do not have to go outside the moral limits that God has placed on us. He does not need us to “do something—anything” to protect ourselves. He’s got it under control. In a recently relevant example, we do not murder insurance company CEOs even if we think their business model is bad. Without getting into the weeds about when is a killing justified, we should be able to agree at least to that distinction. To a more specific application to our group here, we don’t have to spend inordinate time worrying about the future government or corporations do. They cannot oppose God’s plans. They can only advance them. That doesn’t mean our lives will be easier for it or that we resign our responsibilities to be good and lawful citizens. It takes the sting of concern and sleeplessness out of the equation. We serve a powerful God.
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Not only do we serve a powerful God, but that same God is head over our Church. What does it mean to be head? It can be thought of in two ways: God directly orders the church what to do or God takes care of the church like a brain cares for its body. As scholars point out, “The two interpretations are not mutually exclusive, and some commentators argue in favor of a combination of the two (see Bruce 1984, 66–71).” (Brown, Colossians). In other words, God (the same one who makes and sustains the entire universe, including our enemies) pays particular attention to the Church.
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How is Jesus able to do that? Because, as we see in verse 19, all the fullness of God dwells in Him. Jesus has a completely divine nature. Jesus is not some limp-wristed hippy.

Jesus is the Reconciler of All Things
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However, even more powerfully, we see in verse 20 the idea that Jesus brings reconciliation between God and all things. This is only possible by the blood of His cross.
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Have you ever been kinda weirded out by how often Christians sing about blood? This isn’t because we want to be gross, but this is because that is the most important part of our doctrine. In order to have reconciliation, as we have covered before, there has to be blood spilled. And it can’t be just any old human blood. First of all humans are sinners now, and a tainted sacrifice isn’t going to do anything. You can’t substitute one criminal for another. Each criminal has to pay their own fine. Second, even if you could find a perfect human being, that person in their human nature is finite. God’s wrath against sin is infinite. At most, the perfect human being could suffer for all eternity to spring one other human being from hell. One human being only couldn’t save anyone else.
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However, Jesus isn’t just human. He is also God. The Person of Jesus has the attributes of BOTH humanity and divinity. He possesses the ability to bleed and die in His human nature, but His person is infinite because He also has all the divine attributes. He can reconcile all things because He is infinite! Jesus is the only person in the universe who could do this! He is the only person to have divine and human attributes. This is why He must be both. His sacrifice is sufficient for all things, but there will be those who reject their own mercy and refuse to surrender their lives to Jesus. Even this, for reasons beyond our ability to cover here, is part of God’s plan as well.
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Therefore, Jesus is Your Sole Hope
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As we settle into our final verses here, Paul turns to emphatically address the recipients of this letter. The “you” there is plural and emphatic. Translated correctly, and Southern English is the best to translate this word, Paul is saying, “and Y’ALL…” Paul is directly addressing this specific church, and we who are also united in Christ are included here. We, here at Knollwood Presbyterian Church today, were once alienated and hostile and evil towards God, but we have been reconciled, brought back into a good relationship with God, through Christ’s body of flesh. Our sin had to be dealt with.
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Notice also that this reconciliation happens with Jesus. Note that He reconciles all things to Himself! Christ is the offended one, along with the rest of the Godhead! Yet, He is the one who suffers, bleeds, and dies to make it right. It doesn’t get more gracious and merciful than that.
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So what’s a person to do? How on earth do we respond to that? Well, the emphatic “y’all’s” continue in the following verses. He has done all of this so that we might be blameless and holy before Him. This doesn’t mean that Jesus started the process with us finishing it. No, no! Jesus has made us perfectly holy before God on the cross. Period. And from that new status of holy, we begin to shape our lives to live up to this new name. The life that God intends for us is a holy one. God isn’t calling us to a lower life to serve Him. He is simply redefining for our sinful minds what the good life is. The good life is a holy life, which is why He is calling us to it.
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We are called to continue in the faith, being stable and steadfast, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel. Now, as one commentator points out, the “if” isn’t Paul saying that Christians can lose their salvation. He is just saying, “Don’t fall away”! (Wilson, 227). He quotes J.I. Packer as summing it up this way, “The only proof of past conversion is present covertedness.” (ibid, 227).
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In closing, what does a stable and steadfast life that looks to the hope of the gospel look like?
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Well, it begins by realizing, like we said last week, that everything here said is in fact true. It is an actual reality that the God whom you serve is capable of all these things and has actually purchased your redemption.
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You actually need to remind yourself of this every day. I heard a Piper sermon this week where he talked about when he forgets about the forgiveness he has in Christ. He said something to the effect of, we have people in here who feel the guilt of their sin as they are going to bed, and some feel totally insecure of their place in Christ in the morning when they first wake up. He said he was a “morning guilt” person! He feels totally secure as he is going to bed. I’m actually the same way. In that fog of the morning, all the regrets and sins of the past rush to accuse. It is at that very moment that you have to remind yourself of the gospel.
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Once you are re-stabilized, run the rest of your life through that truth. You are reconciled to God, the Creator of all the world, the one who can destroy enemies just by relaxing, through His pouring out His lifeblood on the cross in utter humiliation. There was actual pain involved to remove that sin. Will you now, keeping that in mind, contribute more sin by yelling at your kids? By arguing with your spouse? By gossiping (a form of immodesty)? What sin do you commit that is worth that? Do you really need another hour of scrolling when your Bible hasn’t been touched in a week? Is there really something more glorious to spend your time thinking about?
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And then, once that truth of the glorious Christ has caused you to sin less and enjoy Him more, you will not be able to help yourself from sharing Him with others. You evangelize things and people you love all the time. Look at grandparents! How long can you even go in conversation with them without them bringing the little tykes up, especially if they are proud of them? If you even mention my kids, I am already reaching for my phone to show you a picture! I don’t even have to scroll far to show you one!
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Let us be that way with Christ. Let us adore Him. We can’t do that if we don’t know Him. And we can’t do that if we don’t remind ourselves regularly about Him. We don’t forget because He is forgettable. We forget because we are sinful. Fight to learn; fight to remember. Then enjoy Him. Announce to the world, “Joy! The Lord has come.”

‌Works Cited 
Alisair Wilson, Colossians, ESV Expository Commentary, Crossway.
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L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 321.
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Dougald McLaurin III, “Ancestry and Posterity,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).
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Derek R. Brown, Colossians, ed. Douglas Mangum, Lexham Research Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013),
Col 1:15–23
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